Recently the movement 'Black Lives Matter' has been in the headlines a lot. It has made me think long and hard about why the movement exists.
I cannot pretend to understand the prejudice faced by black people everywhere. As a white person I don't have any perspective. I have tried to get some understanding by talking to my friend who is of Indian and African descent. Some of the things he has told me about growing up in Luton, (United Kingdom) in the 1970s make it sound as if racism against his whole family was just a matter of fact thing that they had to accept and deal with every day. I feel ashamed about the horrible things inflicted upon them.
I have also started to listen to some of the music that embodies the 'Black Lives Matter' movement and I discovered an incredible song I had never heard before by the inimitable jazz singer, Billie Holiday. It's called 'Strange Fruit'. How this song has escaped my notice until now, I can't understand
This is a protest song written firstly as a poem in 1937 by a Jewish man, Abel Meeropol, who used the pseudonym Lewis Allan to publish his work. He then created a song from the poem and it was introduced to Billie Holiday who would sing it in various nightclubs. The song caused mixed reactions amongst her predominantly white audiences. The song was to be her downfall though because it upset one man in particular, Harry Anslinger, who went on to have her put in jail after framing her with a drugs deal, thus ruining her career.
This song tells the truth of the horrifying way in which black people were victimised in the Southern States of America. She was very brave to sing this song when you consider that there was still segregation and horrific racism in America at the time. It describes the lynching of two young black men that happened in Indiana in 1930. At this time, black people were still struggling to make their way through the tide of racism, after slavery was abolished. The words 'Strange Fruit' refer to the bodies of those two poor souls who were hung from the trees.
After hearing it I just sat and cried. It is so emotive and powerful. I've put a link here to a film of her singing it live. You can see and hear how she feels this song right to her very core.
Lyrics Strange Fruit
Southern trees bearing a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is a fruit for the crow to pluck
For the rain to wither, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
https://www.austincc.edu/dlauderb/1302/Lyrics/StrangeFruitLyrics1937.htm
